Tuesday, May 23, 2017

5 End-of-Year Tasks for Instructional Coaches

It's May. Are you counting the days?

If you answer no, I don't believe you. I love my job and I'm counting the days. These two things are not mutually exclusive. There are 11 days left in school. Of those 11 days, one is an all-day end-of-year writing review, one is a field trip that I'm chaperoning, one is a full-day training, and one day is classmaking, all day.

So I don't have too many days to close out the year.

A lot of teachers ask, "What do you do at the end of the year?" I remember being in the classroom. Filling out endless paperwork about students, working on fun (and stressful) end of year projects, and packing everything up.

As a coach, the end of the year is very different. It's just as chaotic, but for different reasons. Here are five things I do at the end of the year to help me be ready for the fall!

1. Make a folder. Label it with next year's school year.

I know, this doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal. But I tend to do a lot of evaluating at the end of the year. I might come across a great article about how to teach grammar, or I might think of an idea to make PLC work a little better for teachers.

I stick all of that stuff in the file. I stuff in ideas and thoughts for next year, and any order forms that we might want to consider for purchases. By the last day of school, I have a nice collection of things to get me started next year. It's a pretty easy system, but it really helps me remember things that I think are important for the next school year.

I do this on my computer, too: I add a folder on my desktop labeled with the upcoming year. If I see any ideas over the summer, I save them to that folder. That way, I can hit the ground running!

2. Debrief with teachers to set goals for next year.

I wrote a whole post about how to set goals for the school year. This can be done at the end of the year or at the beginning. I find that meeting with teachers and grade levels at the end of the year helps me to get an idea of some of the things they'd like to work on while they're still fresh. I record their feedback and notice patterns, bundling them into goals for the following year. I figure out how I need to support those goals and I spend some time over the summer thinking about them.

Then, at the beginning of the year, I look back over them and see if anything has come to me over the summer. Maybe I read some interesting blog posts or books that have given me some ideas about how to address those goals. I revamp my support goals to ensure that I'm prepared to offer the best possible coaching support to my teachers.

3. Make purchases to support next year's initiatives.

This depends on your budget and when your budget is actually available. However, I find that, if I leave purchases for our school secretary to make, by the time school starts again, they're in my room, ready to be organized and distributed. This was especially helpful when the purchases I'm making are items that teachers need to make space for when they're setting up their classrooms. For example, classroom libraries are best distributed before teachers have their libraries set up!4. Make a plan for your room.

Now that you know where your energy will be focused, you can decide on whether this requires you to change your layout. When I created mentor text baskets for each teacher, I had to make space for one of each grade level in my own coaching room, so we could have them to plan with during PLC. This required some reorganization of my space.

Look around your room and ask yourself:
What didn't work well this year?
What did work well?
Is there anything new I need to allow space for?
Is my room teacher-friendly?
Can I improve the accessibility of items in my room?

5. Reorganize your materials into next year's dates.

I start by reorganizing RtI. I relabel binders with the next grade level, and on my documents, I change the grade level and the year to the upcoming one. I finalize the RtI list from this year and make a list of students to "watch" for RtI next year. (This list goes in my "Next Year Folder", by the way!)

I tidy up my binders and empty out old, unnecessary documents so that I can easily add the new items next year. I pull out anything that's dated (covers, file folders, etc.) and replace them with next year's dates.